Introduction

A group of scientists wanted to investigate the effectiveness of fullerene-based compounds on medical treatments. Shungite rock is a major source of fullerene; unfortunately, it is still poorly documented. They studied the role of shungite against the Ultraviolet light that causes skin damage. They examined the physiological features of the skin, signaling of oxidative stress molecule and profiled the immune-redox. To attain their goals, they applied shungite rock to UVB-irradiated mice. They noted that the mice treated with shungite rock had improved skin properties such as roughness, pigmentation and wrinkle measurements. These mice had improved proinflammatory response than those that were not treated. They noted that Mediated Oxidative Stress Pathway contributed to the oxidation of shungite rock.

Ultraviolet radiations cause many skin diseases. People who are exposed to ultraviolet radiations for a short time have immune systems problems, while long-term exposures cause photoaging and carcinoma. It causes various damages to the skin including photosensitivity, DNA damage, and erythema.

Researchers say that shungite rock has been in existence for a long time now, but no records have been documented so far. They focus much on the carbon they get from the shungite and promise that they will document the rock later.

In their study, they investigated the medical benefits of shungite rock to the UVB-irradiated mice and compared the antioxidant properties of the shungite. The group of scientists carrying out the research found out that the shungite had anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects on the mice.

Materials and Methods

The researchers obtained hairless mice from Orient Bio Inc and later kept them at twenty-two degrees Celsius in a room without light. They later acclimatized them for one week and divided them into six groups.The first group was treated with shungite while the others were not. The researchers were granted permission to use the mice for their experiments by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

They later put the mice in a plastic cage where it was irradiated with ultraviolet rays. They analyzed the composition and structure of shungite rock that had no mineral using x-ray spectroscopy method.

The researchers assessed the condition of the skin of the mice before and after their research using TS devices. TS devices are used to measure the smoothness, elasticity, and pigmentation of the skin.

They later collected samples of blood from six groups of mice present to establish the concentration of white blood cells in them. They used a digital blood analyzer this purpose.

This group also analyzed the Serum Inflammatory cytokines and skin lysate. Later on, they drew standard curves

They detected the presence of nitrite in the blood samples of the mice using Griess machine by Promega Corp (Madison, USA).

The researchers measured the activity of superoxide dismutase and glutathione perodixase using the Biovision kit.

Results and Discussions

The main goal of carrying out this research was to establish whether shungite rock is related to the skin damage in the hairless mice. They examined this using the two mice; one with shungite rock that has high mineral content and the other that has no mineral at all compared to fullerene-rich C60. They also studied the effects that constituent elements present in shungite rocks could have on the mice. Olive oil was used because it is employed as a solubilizing agent in the C60. However, they observed that the oil had antioxidant effects and protected the mice when they were irradiated with ultraviolet light.

Clinical evaluation of the skin was done and they noted various skin parameters including elasticity, pigmentation etc of the two groups.

They used the white blood cells count to determine how the mice were responding to inflammations. They later found out that shungite rock affects immunological homeostasis. To prove this fact, they measured the serum and ski lysate to find the cytokine balance.

Overview

Their Research confirmed that Shungite stone has antioxidant effects because it minimized the production of intracellular ROS and improved the enzyme activities. This was the first research that explained several evidences and mechanisms of shungite rock antioxidant effects including improvement of skin parameters such as moisture content, roughness wrinkles and pigmentation. It was also clear from their research that a mineral-less shungite had stronger anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects than the mineral-rich rock. Both the mineral-rich and mineral -less shungite rocks groups were effective when they were screened for anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Synthesizing these facts, they came to a consensus that Shungite stone has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects on the hairless mice. However, their comparison of those groups that were treated by shungite rocks did not cover other skin-related complications such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.

They concluded that shungite rocks have excellent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects thus can be used to solve the following skin complications:

Shungite rocks have potent antioxidant effects similar to those of fullerene C60. In their research, the scientists explored the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of shungite rock and compared the antioxidant effects of mineral-rich and mineral-less rocks with C60 commercial fullerene. Those groups that were treated with shungite rock showed an improvement in their skin parameters such as pigmentation, roughness, and smoothness. Secondly, the immune profiling showed a reduced proinflammatory response in groups that were treated with shungite rocks. Accordingly, redox profiling of these groups showed the
counterbalance of superoxide levels and ROS/RNS. This shows that shungite rocks have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant action on UVB- induced damage to the skin in the mice.

Since the processing of C60 is costly and challenging, these scientists concluded that shungite could be used to offer treatment to inflammatory-related and oxidative diseases. These researchers were all in agreement that the findings of their research were true, and no scientist had any conflicting idea.